Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

News on Criterion and Janus Films.
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TheKieslowskiHaze
Joined: Fri Apr 03, 2020 10:37 am

Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2426 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Mon Jun 21, 2021 5:48 pm

I'm thinking of getting All About Eve during next month's sale. I went back through this thread and read through the drama about the supposedly terrible old packaging. Seems Criterion fixed the issue though, right? Like, if I bought this next month, I'd get a typical, plastic digipack and not that rubber-nippled thing, correct?

If anyone has picked this up in the past year and can confirm, I'd appreciate it.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2427 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Jun 21, 2021 6:07 pm

I can confirm that it's fixed, however I never trust B&N direct with old releases, because their warehouse seems to store and issue used or old copies. I bought it direct from Criterion, and hopefully Amazon will price-match B&N like last summer and you can safely order from them. B&N is probably fine, but you never know- though I imagine there's still a replacement program from Criterion in a worst-case scenario?

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TheKieslowskiHaze
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2428 Post by TheKieslowskiHaze » Mon Jun 21, 2021 7:25 pm

Yeah, I wonder which copies B&N will have on their shelves, if any of the rubber-nippled ones are still hanging around. I will likely pick one up at the store during the sale and then hope to avoid the hassle of a replacement program.

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swo17
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2429 Post by swo17 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:31 pm

Image Image Image Image Image Image

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Blutarsky
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2430 Post by Blutarsky » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:36 pm

Devi might be my favorite cover of the year alongside Mona Lisa. Something powerful about it.

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Pavel
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2431 Post by Pavel » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:37 pm

The Uncut Gems cover is just an inferior version of the poster. The Shrinking Man cover might've seemed like a good idea, but it's pretty ugly in practice. The new Onibaba cover is quite good and High Sierra is excellent

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Pavel
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2432 Post by Pavel » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:38 pm

Blutarsky wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:36 pm
Devi might be my favorite cover of the year alongside Mona Lisa. Something powerful about it.
The Criterion website confirms it's based on an illustration by Ray himself

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swo17
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2433 Post by swo17 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:41 pm

The Mr. Bongo release had the same cover

rwiggum
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2434 Post by rwiggum » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:44 pm

I really like the concept for The Incredible Shrinking Man, but this feels like a first draft. Something about pure white backgrounds that bugs me from a design perspective.

Uncut Gems feels like a bit of a downgrade, but it also looks like they’re going to be playing with holo foil or something so I’m hoping this is a cover that’s going to pop way more in person than digitally. Also curious to see how the rest of the layout is handled.

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cdnchris
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2435 Post by cdnchris » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:57 pm

I like the new Onibaba cover YET I'm still kinda disappointed they didn't just reuse the DVD artwork, which I've always loved.

Uncut Gems is what it is, but I agree with rwiggum that it will probably have that foil look in person which lifts it a slight notch but not much else.

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dwk
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2436 Post by dwk » Thu Jul 15, 2021 1:00 pm

I agree about the Onibaba cover. The new one isn't bad, but the old one was one of their best covers.

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Brian C
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2437 Post by Brian C » Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:15 pm

Yeah, the new Onibaba cover is definitely a case of replacing one of their best covers with one that's merely perfectly fine. Or as I call it, "pulling a Pierrot le Fou".

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JayAlmighty
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2438 Post by JayAlmighty » Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:01 pm

Mixed feelings about the Shrinking Man cover; it would get an "A" in any Graphic Design class, but it doesn't capture the tone of the movie at all.

Devi and High Sierra are great though.

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Cinephrenic
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2439 Post by Cinephrenic » Thu Jul 15, 2021 3:12 pm

Shrinking Man does not capture the spirit of the film.

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zedz
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2440 Post by zedz » Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:04 pm

Blutarsky wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:36 pm
Devi might be my favorite cover of the year alongside Mona Lisa. Something powerful about it.
It's the original poster art. They'd have been crazy to go with anything else.
Image

black&huge
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2441 Post by black&huge » Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:06 pm

The oddest thing is that the upgrade that could have benefited from new cover art stayed the same while the one that was just fine all along gets changed. Come on now.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2442 Post by therewillbeblus » Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:23 pm

Don't feel strongly one way or the other about any of them, though yeah, who at Criterion saw the old Onibaba cover and said, "...nah"?

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FrauBlucher
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2443 Post by FrauBlucher » Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:41 pm

I'm not a huge fan of The Incredible Shrinking Man. It makes the point but it's rather dull. The rest are all solid to good

bakofalltrades
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2444 Post by bakofalltrades » Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:02 pm

Perhaps the cheese stands alone here, but I definitely did not like the old Onibaba cover. Don’t really care much about the new one either, honestly, but am surprised by the affinity for the old cover.

And am glad they left Ratcatcher alone. That one works for me.

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swo17
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2445 Post by swo17 » Thu Jul 15, 2021 7:06 pm

This one fits well with their Kuroneko cover. Perhaps it will have a similar ink effect

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Kracker
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2446 Post by Kracker » Thu Jul 15, 2021 8:42 pm

Loving the covers again this month.
I’m not nostalgic about the Onibaba DVD cover so I’m loving it and can’t wait to finally put this movie on my shelf.
If Uncut Gems is a shiny holo cover, it’s a win but thought they should have stuck with the text treatment of the original poster
Shrinking Man is simple and fine. Could have done something really brilliant but it’s fine. Looks like something they’ve had in the can from the masthead logo era ready to go in the event that they release this film

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barbarella satyricon
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2447 Post by barbarella satyricon » Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:09 am

The topmost figure on the Shrinking Man cover with the head and shoulders cut off just looks immediately, to me, like someone hanging from a gallows, especially with the contextless white background. It makes the whole thing look more like a procedural, crime, or spy movie than anything else.

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colinr0380
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2448 Post by colinr0380 » Fri Jul 16, 2021 11:56 am

I like the cover for The Incredible Shrinking Man, which looks to pair up nicely with Seconds!
cdnchris wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:57 pm
I like the new Onibaba cover YET I'm still kinda disappointed they didn't just reuse the DVD artwork, which I've always loved.
Brian C wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 2:15 pm
Yeah, the new Onibaba cover is definitely a case of replacing one of their best covers with one that's merely perfectly fine. Or as I call it, "pulling a Pierrot le Fou".
I also agree. I think the new cover is fine but have always loved the manga-like cover of the original Onibaba DVD. I wonder if it would be possible to have a thread somewhere that collects images of all of the earlier versions of Criterion covers, just for posterity. It would be an enormous shame to see them lost when the image url linking to the Criterion site changes over to the new version.

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knives
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2449 Post by knives » Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:02 pm

barbarella satyricon wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 9:09 am
The topmost figure on the Shrinking Man cover with the head and shoulders cut off just looks immediately, to me, like someone hanging from a gallows, especially with the contextless white background. It makes the whole thing look more like a procedural, crime, or spy movie than anything else.
Thematically that works out well though.

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barbarella satyricon
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Re: Criterion & Eclipse Cover Art & Packaging Babble-on Vol. 7

#2450 Post by barbarella satyricon » Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:54 pm

knives wrote:
Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:02 pm
Thematically that works out well though.
It’s been some years since I watched the film, but can’t really see how it would relate thematically? I remember it mainly as a sci-fi adventure type deal with a
SpoilerShow
cosmologically philosophical trick ending?

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